Succession Games - Q1 2004 - GalCiv Standard

from Stardock Forums
In a succession game, members of a team take turns at the helm of a single player game, playing a specified number of turns before passing the game to the next player. Players from Realms Beyond played the first complete GalCiv succession game at CivFanatics, where we've been playing Civ3 succession games for years now.

Here is the thread at CivFanatics where the first game was played and reported:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=72311&perpage=20&display=&pagenumber=1

The team had fun playing, and spectators who commented had positive things to say. So we are ready to play another, and to escalate our ambitions. This thread is intended to organize the second round of succession games, and to draw new players to this type of gaming.

Players from any Empire or unattached are welcome to participate. All you need is the desire to play, an ability to make time to play your turn within a day or two when you come up on your team's roster, and a commitment to your teammates to see the game all the way through.

Because games of GalCiv are often incompatible or problematic across patches, it is a good idea to play the game all the way through on a single patch. Thus, with a patch due within weeks and the expansion due out next month, this round of games needs to get moving quickly, within days of this thread opening. If you are interested in joining the action, don't hesitate.


For this round of games, we'd like to open the door to new players. Realms Beyond is going to sponsor a map, and we intend to field three teams, each of whom will play the same map but with different goals. Thus spectators will get to see different strategic choices unfold on the same playfield. The results should be entertaining.

Four or five players per team is ideal. If the rosters fill up and there are more applicants than slots available, additional teams may be formed. The map will be played with the following settings:

Version: 1.13
Difficulty: Crippling (All Genius AI's)
Map Size: Medium
Habitability: Occasional
Star Clusters: Scattered
Political Party: Universalists
Bonus Picks: 3 picks Sensors and Range, 1 pick Influence, Repair, Trade, Weapons
Victory: All conditions enabled

24 hours "got it" notification
48 total hours to play and report a turn
Twelve Turns (one year) per player.
Autoturn: On.
Changeover: At the beginning of the first turn of each year.


We'd like to try three teams: G, N, E.

TEAM G will aim for good alignment and must win by Alliance.
TEAM E will aim for evil alignment and must win by Conquest.
TEAM N will aim to remain neutral and must win by Culture.

Any victory other than the one assigned will be considered a loss.

TEAM G must finish with alignment at or above 70 or "lose" the scenario.
TEAM N must finish with alignment between 40 and 60 or lose.
TEAM E must finish with alignment at or below 30, or lose.

TEAM G may not start wars, but may act freely against those who declare war against them or against their formal allies.

Special Commendation to teams who avoid selling techs and trade goods to majors for cash (Maso style) as that increases the challenge.


A Realms Beyond veteran with succession game experience will lead each of these three teams. Roster slots are open to anybody, but experience playing on Crippling difficulty or higher would be a plus.

Active participants will not view the threads of the other teams until their game has been concluded. We ask spectators to maintain an ettiquette of no spoilers. PLEASE do not say anything about what is going on in with the other teams, or if you download the games to try to "follow along at home", please do not mention any elements of that until the team has completed the game. This will best protect the quality of the competition and the fun factor for those doing the playing. Thank you for your cooperation.


Interested players should sign up here in this thread. If you are applying for only a specific team, please say so. If you would take any slot but you have a preference, state that. If you will take any slot and don't have a preference, state that. We'll leave the applications open for a few days -- through this weekend at least -- then gather the applicants, organize teams, and begin playing next week. Each team will have its own thread at CivFanatics and I will edit this first post to include links for easy access for spectators and lurkers.


If enough players who prefer lower difficulty would like to play, a separate game on a different map could be started. So even if this map does not suit you, you should still apply if you are interested in succession games. We will try to help you get involved. The possibilities are endless, including rival empires forging their own teams.

Comments and questions are welcome. Signups are OPEN.


- Sirian
4,806 views 85 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Sirian,

I'll volunteer to take the helm of the E team, if you do not mind. I would also like to add the restriction that our conquest not be by use of Terror Stars (been using them a bit too much lately). Any problem with that additional restriction?
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I'll sign up, no preference to which team I wind up in. If you need a leader and no-one else wants the job, I can take that on too.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Sounds cool Sirian, please sign me up for the cultural team! Coke and Nike are my favorite way to win :)
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
If you guys don't mind I'd like to join a team... any team is good. Although I'm probably best off on the E or N teams.

While we are waiting for the teams to form I'll up my difficulty and see hoe that goes.
[Message Edited]
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Additional thoughts for the E team...

Do we want to keep a tight maso restriction on tech sales? That is--only sell techs for cash to the Alexians? I am used to that by now--but I will wait to see what the majority thinks. With no bonus to our military, we are going to have some fun with this...
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Well if you guys decide to do a lower level I'd be interested. Painful is still exactly that for me - painful.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
With no bonus to our military, we are going to have some fun with this...
End of quote


Well it's not NO bonus. :) There is a small bonus to weapons and defense, plus a small repair bonus. Trust me, that's different than no bonus. :D I chose the bonuses to spread around a few minor benefits to each team.

Still nobody outside RB who has signed up? Hmm. If we don't draw any additional interest, we may not be able to gather enough in time to field three teams. That would be a shame, reducing the comparison value and perhaps the insights that will emerge.

We would really like for at least a few folks from other empires to take a chance and play along. We promise you a good time, help with anything you need, and to answer any questions you may have. :) Plus if succession games catch on, having been an early participant could become an asset to you down the line.


- Sirian
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I eagerly await following these games... Will the turn by turn info be posted as was in the first game?

And no I am not up to playing one of these as much as I'd like to. I try to bump up to normal and I have rump-roast of oldgamster for a meal...

Good luck to all of you.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
I guess I will be brave and toss my hat into the ring. Team E or N for me please. :)
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Fast question, RBers - what hoops do we need to jump through in order to avoid crashes? I've been following the Jedi's problems in getting this set up, and am trying to find the time to execute the 3,731 steps necessary to get going.

I'm running a clean 1.13 install, with only the "Smuggling" mod. If this is good to go as-is, I'm interested.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
What we did was to pass off the game using a zip file of the save game and its folder of other files. I believe that we all used winzip (std shareware program) with the setting to "save overall path". Then when you extract the files using winzip, you end up with the save file and its folder with all the associated files intact. This can be done either extracting in the data/savegames directory, or somewhere else and the save file and folder then transferred.

Useing winzip also keeps the files from becoming corrupted, which has been a minor recurring problem in Civ3 with the .sav files.

I'll may put a primer at the start of the thread over at civfanatics, which is where we will host the games.
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Aha. But no need for a separate complete install of the game? How about mods? If I pull "Smuggling" now, it's probably going to wreck a game I have in progress...
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
I do not think there is a need for a separate install. Sirian will generate the game start (since we are all using the same map, party, and picks. I have not known that having a mod installed eliminates the ability to just run a standard game.
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
What the hey, count me in on the G team. We Diplomats are going to start a succession game in the empire, but I have time to do both.

Questions: This is my first experience with such playing. Will you post a thorough description as to how to post saved games? Are we going to post full reports of our turns like you did with your RB game?
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
I expect the answer is yes, on both counts, AmulekBird. BamBam already indicated he'd put up a "proces primer" at CivFanatics, so no worries there. As far as reports go, the better the report-writing in the thread, the better the overall experience both for the participants and for the spectators. This doesn't necessarily mean recording every last detail of your turn, but you need to provide enough info to give the reader a sense of how your turn went. Pictures are very helpful here as well. For GalCiv, I personally find that providing a per-quarter summary works well, but some others prefer a month-by-month description.
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Likewise, I'll try the "G" team as well. But if it starts causing problems, I may need to bow out - we shall see.

Regarding the "house rules" of trading for cash only with Alex - FYI, this isn't always the case with Maso games, although it does seem to be a common scenario. I have a Maso Large cooking where ALL of the minors are buying, and Scotty is actually large enough to defend himself militarily! One of these days, maybe I'll see these huge minors that everyone else has mentioned...(sniff)

Sorry, back to the point. If you want a house rule, why not make it no trades for cash, PERIOD? If you see this as a loophole, treat it like one - disallow the behavior completely. Treating Alex differently, just because the game usually allows it, is odd.

All of these victory conditions are going to require a strong economy first and foremost, and I think it would be interesting to see if we can do it the old-fashioned way - trade and careful expenditures. If the "E" team needs more cash to support a warfleet, they can always extort cash instead of trading for it.
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
I am still reading to learn so I will be a lurker for a while longer.

At the moment I play to play not win 1st, win 2nd, so my games are long.

If you need someone and if you are willing to put up with newbie type playing then I am in for G.

~SDC~
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
Ben, could you move your mod files to a temporary location before you take your turn, then move them back afterward? Consider it a part of the process, which already involves zipping and unzipping the files, writing and posting a report, taking and cropping screenshots (if desired), and uploading files to the CivFanatics file server. Moving a few files twice would not be that much extra, and it would not interfere with your other game. With four or five players on the team, you can figure between three and six turns for you, spread over time, so would that be managable?

As for avoiding crashes, as far as I know there are only three sources of fatal crashes in this patch: the two tech-sharing UP issues, and the Draginol event. I took the simple, early fix (before CariElf worked on it) of moving the two broken UP issues to a backup folder (removing them) and I never did fix the Draginol event, figuring that it is fairly rare and I could reload if it did show up.

CivFanatics has a file server. The upload process is easy, and you can have as many pictures as appropriate to support your report details. We will make sure there are ample directions for the process.


CURRENT SIGNUP STATUS


TEAM G

Sirian (Team Captain)
AmulekBird
Samurai Ben
open slot
open slot


TEAM N

Zed-F (Team Captain)
Chenglian
open slot
open slot
open slot


TEAM E

BamBam (Team Captain)
open slot
open slot
open slot
open slot


UNASSIGNED PLAYERS

Walker (E or N)
TBC
Isit (E or N)


We still need at least three more signups to field three teams, with room for up to six more. There is still time to get involved. C'mon, it will be fun. :D


- Sirian
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
I am still reading to learn so I will be a lurker for a while longer.
End of quote


That's fine. :)

An experienced team can hum along and accomplish as much as a solo player, sometimes more because several heads working together may be better than one working alone. However, inexperienced teams or players of divergent strategy may not meet that standard, and could be in for all they can handle. Not to mention that medium/large maps tend to be the least forgiving, and scattered is the hardest cluster setting, PLUS we don't exactly have the most beefy set of bonus picks. One or more teams could well lose the game! Ah, but climbing a mountain is more engaging than climbing a molehill, so we're going to try this and see how it goes. :)

Certainly, we do not want to toss folks into the deep end of the pool if they are not comfortable with their swimming skills, so no worries. Lurk away. I'm sure there will be more chances to play in the future, including games on lower difficulty to accomodate a wider range of players.

LKendter is looking for a game on Challenging, and he's got over sixty civ3 succession games under his belt -- more than anybody else on the planet, I believe. :) So there's a player who could handle the role of team captain. If there are enough folks looking for a game at that level, maybe we can get one started.


- Sirian
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
I like to play Gigantic and scattered clusters with every game a little harder (normal + at the moment)so put me on an intermediate team G.

If you through me into the fire I will try my best but the team be warnd. We may go down in flames after blowing-up. :)

~SDC~
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
Heh, no worries, I am sure with Sirian at the helm providing helpful suggestions and bringing the team back on track, you won't wander too far afield. Unless you get fubared right at the very beginning of the game, you should have no insurmountable trouble.

Sirian, if we wind up with too few participants, my vote is to axe the N team and divvy up the players, as the N team has the least interesting variant rules and easiest victory conditions. I would prefer teams of 5 if possible so we can accomodate skips if necessary without running into one another too much. I hope Chenghong is ok with that, though hopefully we will get enough more blood to show up that it becomes a non-issue.
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
I hope these games go through guys, cause I'll be the no 1 spectator :). Unfortunately, due to my own current flakeyness, I will not be able to join any of the teams. Please note that I haven't managed to sneak enough time in to play any galciv for a couple of weeks, though I hope to remedy that situation this week.

-Smegged